Unprecedented times call for unprecedented ideas and this year, the burning question on everyone’s mind was how Orthodox Christian faithful would receive the symbolic light— the flame that emerges from the darkness to bring hope to the world.
For Orthodox Christians this flame is symbolic of the light of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ, who emerged victorious over death from the tomb.
The answer, given the strict health restrictions in place throughout the nation and churches unable to physically share the light, was to share it— digitally.
In a now-viral video, hundreds of thousands of faithful and their well-wishers received the light from Archbishop Elpidophoros of America.
Magnified exponentially by the shares and re-Tweets by high profile leaders like Vice President Joe Biden and numerous political leaders like Senators Kamala Harris, Bob Menendez and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, the reach of the light is in the millions.
The official Twitter profile of The White House also shared the Tweet.
The beautifully edited video shows the Archbishop preparing in darkness, putting on his mitre and getting the censor ready. He then lights the candle and emerges from the darkness, symbolic of Christ’s dark tomb, to bring the digital light to the world.
The video was launched at 4:45pm EST to coincide with Resurrection services taking place in Istanbul, Turkey, seat of the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople and the spiritual center of global Orthodoxy.
The video went viral, with hundreds of thousands of views, shares and comments across the Archbishop’s social media channels. On Twitter alone, at the writing of this post, the Archbishop’s video has been viewed over a quarter of a million times.
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